Birthday Surprises
by dragonprincess1988
Summary: It's Jason's birthday, and one of his family members has a surprise for him.


Today is Jason's birthday. He tries not to think about it. That doesn't mean that he succeeds, however. He doesn't actually remember too many good birthdays. Sure, when he was living with Bruce, his birthdays were always a huge event and fun, but those memories bring nothing but pain now. Before Bruce, however, none of his birthdays were really all that happy. It was always a reminder of what he didn't or what he could never have. It was always just easier to pretend the day was just another day-nothing special-not that Jason ever thought the day of his birth was really all that special anyway.

Now though? Now, it's all just anger, frustration, and pain. He usually can get away with the day passing unnoticed-even to him. All he has to do is keep himself busy, and the scum running around Gotham always works as a good distraction. It doesn't look as though his birthday is going to be so easily avoided this year, however. Not if the box sitting on his kitchen table, covered in brightly colored paper, is anything to go by. He knows it's from one of his so-called family members. After all, no one else could have gotten said package into his apartment without knowing a few tricks, and no one knows his tricks more than a Bat. Jason is pretty sure that the 'gift' is from Dick-that is if the colors on the wrapping paper are anything to go by. Jason's fairly certain no one else on the face of any earth would pick such obnoxious colors. The bright blue, red, green, and gold wrapping paper is honestly hurting his eyes, and Jason almost wants to blow it up-just so he won't have to look at it anymore.

He's not really sure what's stopping him from doing so. He wants to blame his curiosity, but it's just not a good enough excuse. Jason glares at the package on his table, and thinks about just taking a knife to the damn thing. After all, unlike him, the other Bat boys have to get daddy-approved reasons to rig packages with explosives. Not to mention, that's more Joker's style anyway. That thought makes him want to shudder, but he's been repressing that need long enough that it's just second nature to push it all down. He deliberately walks past the annoyingly wrapped box, opens his refrigerator, and gets out a beer. Jason figures that if he's going to be forced to deal with whatever the hell is inside that present, he might as well have an accelerant in hand.

He goes to pull his knife to cut through the garish paper, because even if it's not rigged with explosives, Jason is pretty sure any one of the other Bats could have done something equally nasty to it. He's just about to slip his knife underneath one of the green corners, when Jason hears something behind him. He spins around to see a grinning Nightwing leaning against his door-jam. "Happy Birthday. So, are you going to just glare at it all day? Or are you going to open it?"

Jason holds his knife up in a defensive position. "What the hell makes you think I'm not just going to toss it out the window?"

Dick's smile only grows wider. "Come on, we both know you won't. Besides, it's a birthday present. Other than the occasional embarrassing ones, they're generally a good thing, Jay."

Jason scoffs at him. "A good thing from anyone in this fucked-up family? Yeah, right."

Dick rolls his eyes. "Look, I promise it's not going to explode or anything, if that's what you're worried about."

Jason glares. "I'm not worried."

Dick folds his arms across his chest. "Then prove it, and open the damn box."

Jason is suddenly more apprehensive than he was when he first saw the present sitting on his kitchen table, because now Dick is bouncing on the balls of his feet. Clearly, whatever is in that box is something that's going to make Dick happy, which most likely means it's going to make Jason miserable. Jason slides his knife under one of the pieces of tape holding the wrapping paper down. "I swear if this gets blue ink all over my apartment like last year's present I'm going to gut you open."

Dick laughs at him, and that's when Jason realizes that Dick somehow moved beside him without his even noticing. "Stop being such a whiner and just open it."

Jason growls to himself before he starts slicing the paper off. He's left with a red box with a green lid, and the only thing that keeps him from throwing the box across the room is the fact that it starts making noise. He glares at Dick once more before he opens the lid to reveal a small stuffed white long haired cat. He picks it up by the head and shoves it in Dick's face. "What the hell is this?"

Dick is, at least, trying not to fall down laughing, which Jason thinks is something. "Well, I thought you needed a friend, but I don't trust your ability to keep a real one alive, so I thought that this was a better option. Jason stares at the fluffy toy cat in his hand, and then glances back at Dick with a questioning expression. Dick only smiles more. "It even meows and purrs."

As if on cue, the furry toy starts purring loudly, and Jason just stares at it some more. "You say it as if that's supposed to make this better."

Dick laughs again. "Oh, if you could see your face, you would see that it so does." Jason doesn't get a chance to say anything before Nightwing heads for his window, laughing the whole way. He's hanging halfway out of it, when Dick tosses back a, "Happy Birthday, Jay," over his shoulder.

Jason has the sudden urge to throw the stuff cat toy out the window after Dick, but just tosses it back in the box instead. After all, he can always use something new to annoy Timmy with. Jason smiles to himself as he thinks about it. All he has to do is find a way to amplify the sound, and then he can make Tim's night a living hell. Jason smirks evilly as he moves to sit down in one of his kitchen chairs. This may turn out to be one of the best birthday presents that he's ever been given.

The End


End file.
